What causes trouble falling asleep and staying asleep?
Sleep rarely goes wrong for one reason.
About 15 percent of US adults have trouble falling asleep most days or every day, and 18 percent have trouble staying asleep.[1] Those are two different problems, often caused by:
An overactive mind. You worry, your thoughts race, and you replay the day once the room goes quiet.
Cortisol still high at night. On a normal day, your stress hormone reduces through the evening. On a hard week, it doesn't.
What you did during the day. You ate late, had caffeine or a drink before bed, or kept looking at a screen when lights were meant to be out.
A body clock that keeps shifting. Your bed and wake times are irregular, or you keep bright lights on late at night.
A sleeping tablet makes you drowsy, and for someone who can't fall asleep at all, that works. But it doesn't address why cortisol levels are high at 2 am, or why a body clock has gone haywire.
What does LYBL's Sleep Support help you achieve?
Our night blend is not a sedative. It is a five-herb blend that helps calm the mind, support stress recovery, and protect daytime clarity. We've also added Ashwagandha, which has the most human evidence of any sleep herb. It is also the only one of the five in our daytime tablet.
Shankhapushpi (Convolvulus pluricaulis). Reviews describe it as mildly calming. [2] [3] Human evidence has displayed its benefits in anxiety and the sleep trouble that comes with it.
What this means for you:
- It supports a quieter mind rather than a sedated one.
- It works on the mental volume that keeps you from drifting off.
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera). Sixty adults with insomnia took 300 mg of the root extract twice a day for ten weeks. They fell asleep faster, rated their sleep better than the placebo group, and had lower anxiety scores.[4] Researchers later pooled five trials covering 400 adults and found the same thing.[5] The effect was bigger at 600 mg a day or more, and even bigger when people took it for eight weeks or longer.
What this means for you:
- It helps your body come down from the stress it has been holding since morning.
- The benefit builds across weeks. It doesn't arrive on the first night.
- People in the trials woke up clear rather than groggy.
Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus). It is described as a nourishing herb that calms the nerves, and it is reported to settle both stress and sleep.[6]
What this means for you:
- It rounds out the other calming herbs without adding sedation.
Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri). Reviews and clinical work describe better memory and attention, and some easing of anxiety. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 80 adults found that bacopa supplementation improved memory and cognitive function. It also helped reduce anxiety and cortisol levels while improving sleep quality and BDNF levels. [7]
What this means for you:
- It supports sharper thinking as your sleep improves.
- It eases the mental fatigue that follows a run of broken nights.
Yashtimadhu (Glycyrrhiza glabra). Also known as Licorice, and often recommended for its calming and mood‑supporting effects. In a small human pilot, it was added to existing care for depression. The researchers found it works on the enzyme that clears cortisol from your tissues. [8] Because licorice slows that enzyme, more cortisol stays in circulation. This is why it should be taken under expert supervision, as licorice can raise blood pressure in some people.
What this means for you:
- It supports the stress-hormone side of a bad sleep pattern.
- Speak with a LYBL Holistic Health Physician before you start.
Should you take ashwagandha in the morning or at night?
Take it twice a day, not once at bedtime. That is how the trials dosed it, and it is why ashwagandha is in both of our formulations rather than only the night one. The stress you carry through the day remains in your body at bedtime. An adaptogen brings it down before you're ready to wind down.
Ashwagandha is our core ingredient in the daytime regimen. Three other herbs work alongside it.
Centella asiatica. In laboratory studies, Centella extracts improved sleep quality and cut how often the animals woke.[9]
Jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi). It has a long history of use for restlessness and disturbed sleep, and it belongs to a broader calming plan rather than working on its own.
Rubia cordifolia and Hemidesmus indicus. Rubia is in the tablet for its long-standing role in inflammation and circulation.[10] Meanwhile, hemidesmus is studied for its potential as a strengthening herb with anti-inflammatory and stress-easing properties.[11]
Why our melatonin works differently from a sleeping pill
Melatonin, a hormone, doesn't work as a sedative, and supplementing it as one works against your body.
Your brain releases melatonin in the evening as a cue to help your body wind down. It works as a timing signal rather than an off switch. Take a large dose right at bedtime, and you may fall asleep quickly and still wake up groggy, because a large dose overwhelms a system that only needed a small push.
We dose it small (2 mg) and recommend to take it on a schedule. Same hour each night, dimmer light and less screen time before it, and a wake time that holds on Saturday. European and American sleep medicine guidance also cap melatonin doses at 1 to 2 mg. A 2014 review on older adults recommended an optimal dosage starting from 0.3 mg (which is effective) up to a maximum of 1 or 2 mg. It added that higher doses potentially led to melatonin losing its effectiveness on sleep parameters. [12]
We also never give melatonin on its own. We recommend it alongside calming herbs, an earlier dinner, less caffeine and alcohol, a fixed bed and wake time, and a guided protocol to help you wind down.
And the plan is built to get smaller. You start with more support, then step back from the melatonin or the nightly tablet as your own routine carries more of the weight.
What we saw in our own Sleep Health program
In LYBL's pilot Sleep Health Program, people with insomnia took herbal support alongside personalized diet and lifestyle changes over four to six weeks. The cohort reported 40% to 60%, symptom reduction with greater improvements observed in clients with higher baseline severity. Sleep-related worry showed the highest reduction and daily functioning improved significantly along with sleep quality, continuity, and satisfaction. Read the full report here.
How LYBL supports better sleep
Your formulations are dosed for you, not for an average person. Your physician looks at your stress pattern, digestion, schedule, and what you have already tried. How much Sleep Support you take, and when, follows from that.
Over the next weeks, your physician tracks your sleep, energy, and how you function during the day, not just the hours you slept. The plan is adjusted as those change.
